Post by mtommie on Oct 29, 2016 16:45:36 GMT 8
The role of a leader is often very difficult to define and even harder to understand even for adults let alone children.
I could ramble but most of my thoughts and ideas have already been touched upon by others. So in short what is a leader? The organiser, the quiet one, the loudest, the most outgoing or none of these things?
I believe our role as teachers is to bring out the best in our students if we can. The personalities of most individuals are not fully formed until they are in their early twenties, let alone as 3 or 4 years old. Hence a psychiatrist cannot place a fully formed or reliable diagnosis of mental illness or personality disorder on an individual until this age. So it goes with leaders and the age old question, are they born or are they created, I believe both.
It is our role to nurture whatever talent they have and embrace both positive and negative aspects of what they do. The reality is we have huge responsibility to take care with these young minds. The next, 'Steve Job's' could be the quietest Kid in the class so take care to nurture the natural talents of all of your students, whether they appear to be leaders or not.
My final point goes to Chinese education and Chinese culture as a whole, our young learners have far more pressure and expectation thrust upon them in a very very real sense compared to children in the education systems in the west. They have the issue's of, face, status and often have the entire investment of their expended family's future as an additional burden, hence the huge suicide rates among young students in China. Another point worth consideration before arbitrary allocation of leadership in class.
I could ramble but most of my thoughts and ideas have already been touched upon by others. So in short what is a leader? The organiser, the quiet one, the loudest, the most outgoing or none of these things?
I believe our role as teachers is to bring out the best in our students if we can. The personalities of most individuals are not fully formed until they are in their early twenties, let alone as 3 or 4 years old. Hence a psychiatrist cannot place a fully formed or reliable diagnosis of mental illness or personality disorder on an individual until this age. So it goes with leaders and the age old question, are they born or are they created, I believe both.
It is our role to nurture whatever talent they have and embrace both positive and negative aspects of what they do. The reality is we have huge responsibility to take care with these young minds. The next, 'Steve Job's' could be the quietest Kid in the class so take care to nurture the natural talents of all of your students, whether they appear to be leaders or not.
My final point goes to Chinese education and Chinese culture as a whole, our young learners have far more pressure and expectation thrust upon them in a very very real sense compared to children in the education systems in the west. They have the issue's of, face, status and often have the entire investment of their expended family's future as an additional burden, hence the huge suicide rates among young students in China. Another point worth consideration before arbitrary allocation of leadership in class.